This is my craziest punt stock of the season due to its low market cap ($1.55m at 5cps!) and lack of liquidity. Have decided to give it a thread in the hope that the HY result will be worth writing up here later!

HiTech is a recruitment business, specialising in ICT. They listed too late for the tech boom and languished from the listing price of 70cps down to a low of 1.5cps. However, they have remained borderline profitable and never gone back to the market for more cash.

I picked up 100k at 2.5cps after coming across them on the net-net thread, so it's not going to make or break the bank! However, I am interested to see how it plays out, given the difficulties the liquidity imposes.

At last report, they had cash of $535k and other liquid assets in excess of liabilities totalling $1.5m. They reported a small profit last year ($136k with normal tax). However, this year is likely to see a substantial increase on that.

Firstly, at the agm they reported a 49% increase in first quarter revenue and $200k NPAT for the first quarter alone (plus gains on listed investment assets). They also forecast FY NPAT of $500 - $750k, though I would not normally take too much notice of a forecast that early in the season for a minnow like HIT.

Secondly, the federal tender database shows a dramatic increase in contracts awarded to HIT - 2009 year jul-dec period showed orders totalling $1.1m, while for the 2010 year jul-dec it sits at $5.2m... given that last year HIT total 12 month revenue ran at $5.5m and AusTender showed contracts for about half of that, the AusTender indicator is for a pretty impressive increase. If the pattern continues (and so far January has $1.2m of orders), then it is likely HIT revenue will at least double and perhaps triple, with NPAT at least $750k and perhaps closer to $1m mark.

So I am interested to see both how the half year result is tracking and how far the share price can move. Ideally, it would be good to see a dividend paid, and up to 1cps might be possible, although this would be more likely at FY.

However, ridiculously cheap as it is, no stock gets this illiquid without a reason, so there has to be a reasonable chance I'll get my fingers seared - if not by the result, by the lack of a market for the stock!